The causes of periodontal diseases (destruction of the supporting structures of the teeth, i.e., gums and bone) are essentially unknown. However, one indisputable consideration is that in most cases the presence of plaque and tartar appears to be a major contributing factor in the progression of the disease. After periodontal therapy is instituted, the ultimate success of the treatment depends as much on the patient's ability to keep his or her gums free of plaque and tartar as it does on the doctor's competence.
In reality tooth and gum cleansing should not be a difficult task, but because one cannot directly observe 90% of oral cleansing, the task becomes time consuming and onerus. An additional hinderance to proper oral hygiene is the design of existing toothbrushes. Most people do not have the necessary dexterity to properly manipulate and cleanse with a conventional brush head that is mounted on a hand grip when it is five to six inches long. People go through cleaning motion, but do not clean. In most instances, people just initiate tooth brushing primarily as an exercise in carrying toothpaste, a mouth freshening vehicle, to get rid of bad taste and reduce the fear of having offensive breath.
Even though for years users (particularly those who are handicapped or arthritic) of long handled toothbrushes have had problems with maneuvrability and control, the design has not appreciably changed over two centuries. The use of an extended handled toothbrush for brushing eliminates the possibility of meaningful, spontaneous tactile sensation when attempting to differentiate between the various tissues in the oral cavity during tooth and gum cleansing. However, most people can readily touch with their finger any particular area in the oral cavity without any difficulty because of the reliance placed on the tactile sense.
Various attempts have been made in providing finger mounted toothbrushes. However, they have been designed from the standpoint of disposability and compactness of shape for travel use. U.S. Pat. No. 1,611,510 discloses a toothbrush in the shape of a tube having formed thereon a plurality of ribs. The device may be formed of fabric or other suitable material and used to clean one's teeth and then simply discard the device. Similar types of finger mountable tubes having various cleaning surfaces thereon are also disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,894,413, 2,151,846, 2,167,129 and 2,968,827. All of these devices encompass the end of a finger and extend down to at least the second finger joint where the tube is sufficiently flexible to be gripped by the finger during use. An improvement on the design for the tube-type finger mountable toothbrush is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,134,172. A rubber tube has a brush portion mounted on the base thereof. The brush portion may include a clip which encompasses the rubber to assist in gripping the person's finger. The rubber expands to conform to the shape of the user's finger where the rubber tube extends rearwardly of at least the second joint of the user's finger. By the mounting of the brush on the base of the rubber tube and thereby locating the finger over top of the brush, bulkiness is added to the unit which makes it very difficult to manipulate the device in all areas of the oral cavity.
The major drawback with the devices of these patents is the encapsulation of the finger. This prevents taking advantage of the tactile sense to assist in properly locating the oral hygiene device in the desired areas of the oral cavity to affect cleansing of the tooth and gum area. An additional significant problem with the finger manipulated toothbrushes is that, if reuse is desired, it is very difficult to cleanse the closed end tubular portion of the brush. This results in unsightly, undesirable accumulation of material within the tube of the brush which discourages reuse. In this respect, a finger mountable tooth cleaner is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,798,698 which is worn in a manner similar to a ring, thereby leaving the end of the finger free to explore the oral cavity in providing a cleansing action. The brush, however, is provided at the base of the finger which adds to the bulkiness of the unit and furthermore the type of mounting in surrounding the finger does not provide a secure connection which would prevent rotation of the brush during use.
The objective of a finger mounted oral hygiene device should be to take advantage of a tactile sense in using the finger for manipulating the working head of device, whereby one can easily remove a maximum amount of plaque and debris in the oral cavity in a time frame one is accustomed to reserving for this purpose.